Tag Archives: Beef Allergy

If I were the grading type, and I am… I’d give our week an A+!!! Yes, with three exclamation marks!

When I started with my long range plans, I mapped out a general “we should be in this chapter by midyear….” And then I got really crazy and wrote down exactly how many pages SG should complete per day per subject to reach the goal of finishing the curriculum. Then I read the chill out blogs and erased the page number requirements. Er, guidelines.

And I did some soul searching and decided it was time to relax. I want our learning time to be enjoyable, fun and full of excitement! Ok, I know not every subject will be super exciting, but I want SG to grow to love learning! I have to take the public school mentality out of my brain, and imagine a cozy, home learning environment.

I am so thankful for all the blogs I’ve read that said to relax, don’t stress and enjoy our learning time together.

People keep writing, “Learning happens all day, throughout the day, in natural environments and through play.” It’s so true. Now that I’m paying attention, I see SG thinking through things and asking questions all day long.

Today at breakfast, SG was talking about the difference in age between the Huzz and me. (Almost 2 years)

“Mom, when you’re 40, will Daddy be 42?”

Yes.

“And when you’re 42, Daddy will be 44?”

Yes.

She would’ve kept going but I was actually writing this post and told her to eat her breakfast. Why did I stop her? I’ve still got so much to learn!!!

There she is, eating breakfast and working on counting by 2’s. Just because she wanted to and has a curious mind. 🙂

(We just finished week 2. I have written about that and it’s coming soon. I’m just behind in posting. I’m so excited to actually find time to blog this school year!)

I have modified the spices a bit. Feel free to change the spices to ones you and your family enjoy.

I also use homemade bread crumbs, but store bought breadcrumbs or panko would work well, too.

This breadcrumb mixture made more than enough for half a container of tofu. I think I could have used this recipe for the entire package, but I was hesitant to use all the tofu in case this didn’t turn out. But it did and my little family loved it!

So tonight, we are having the other half of the tofu and I’m making these crispy shake and bake tofu tenders again! Along with some garlic mashed potatoes and maybe some stewed fresh green beans. And some homemade vegan gravy for the taters and beans… Mmmm, mmm! I better hurry this post up so I can cook- it’s almost dinner time already!

1 package of extra firm tofu, pressed between two plates for about 20-30 minutes (do this in advance and cut the tofu into strips like chicken tender sized)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare your flax eggs in a medium sized bowl and whisk with a fork. When the flax eggs are gelled and gooey, they are ready.

Take everything above the starred line and mix it together in a gallon plastic baggie- adding the oil last. I like to shake the dry ingredients together first and then add the oil.

Dip one tofu strip into the flax egg and then put it into the seasoned breadcrumb mixture and shake. Place the tofu strip onto a parchment lined cookie sheet (foil works, too, but parchment gives you no stick to the pan-ness! 😉 )

Repeat with each tofu strip. If you run out of flax eggs, you will need to make another one (1Tbsp of ground flax & 3 Tbsp of water)

Bake for 5 minutes. Gently flip the tenders. Bake for 5 more minutes. Flip tenders. Bake for another 3-4 minutes, or until tenders are crispy.

Notes:
Serve as you would serve chicken tenders, with a sauce or ketchup. (SG loves it this way.)
The Huzz and I prefer these crispy tenders cut up and served in a bowl along with other food. (Like in a salad or with a pasta dish with the tofu standing in for the chicken.)

It totally looks like chicken- but it doesn’t taste like it. The flavor is all in the crispy coating, so don’t be afraid to spice it up in the bag!

I hope y’all enjoy these crispy shake and bake tofu tenders. (I’m still working on getting my Southern back, y’all! I kind of lost it from living in Ohio and Iowa for so long!)

I have to say, I have some hope for the first time in a long time for my daughter’s contact reactions. We moved and have a new allergist who gave us a plan to start to try to reduce and hopefully eliminate her constant contact reactions when we are out in public. I felt so emotional at the chance to finally be free of contact reactions, I almost cried. My hope was stuffed down and crushed, but still, I always pray for a cure. I’ve always said that if her contact reactions would go away, it’d be so much easier to manage. Not easy, but easier. Having a ray of hope is nice. It’s refreshing.

It’s a good reminder thatmy hope is in the Lordand perhaps I need to readjust my heart and remember where my hope comes from.

Peel Potatoes in the evening and completely cover potatoes with water in a bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Keep in fridge until it’s time to make the mashed potatoes the next day. (Optional step. Can omit and do this on day 4.)

Seriously, y’all, I think I might have drooled when I clinked on the link and saw the menu board. Obviously, I’ve tried LOTS of ways to organize my menu planning. All have been good, but I kept trying new ways. But this… this was a thing of beauty!

Luckily, I had some budgeted spending money and went straight to Staples and Target. Here’s what I needed for my board:

Magnetic Calendar

Magnetic Printing Paper

Menu Board Supplies

I couldn’t believe the magnetic board was on clearance at Target. That was a major score!

I think it cost around $22 for both the board and paper.

You can visit any of the above linked blogs to see how they made their magnetic menu planning boards.

The first step was compiling all of our favorite recipes. See the pic below of the clipboard to see my list of our favorite recipes.

I used “Pages” with my MacBook and played around with rectangular shapes. I printed rectangles, cut them out, held them in a menu board square, adjusted the rectangle size and tried again until I had the right size.

I picked colors that I liked. I typed in our favorite recipes in white letters. Then I printed that bad boy and held my breath. My cheap little ink jet printer did awesome! It took the sheet through completely one time before printing it. It did that both times. But then it printed it beautifully the second go round.

I have to admit… when the magnetic sheet came out I was as giddy as a child. I think I even danced my way to our bedroom to show the Huzz. Even he loved the magnets. Our little printer made us proud.

Anyway, the Huzz cut out the magnets for me. (I have tendonitis that flares with excessive scissor use. For real!)

Then, I lovingly placed each one according to my written menu plan.

And then I just stared at it in awe. I can’t believe I made this, y’all! I. am. not. crafty.

I do sit down and write out our menu plan. I photocopy our big calendar and then with a pencil, plan our meals. I plan a month at a time. I do it slowly- not all at once. When I have time, I sit down and grab my clipboard. I keep the photocopied next month’s calendar on my clipboard with a pencil attached. I grab my iPad, my list of favorite recipes, get on Pinterest for new recipes and plan away.

My Favorite Recipes List. I add new favorites & use this to help me menu plan.

My photocopied calendar. I write in recipes on here when I have time. Blurred out for my own privacy. 🙂

Yesterday, I had almost the entire month of June planned on paper. However, I was just stumped for a few dinners. I took the magnets down from May, organized them according to color, and placed what was planned on the board. The best part? The blanks in my menu plan were easily filled with the remaining magnets. Y’all… I just picked up magnets and finished my menu planning that way. Easy peasy!

Here’s some pics of the printed magnetic sheets:

I printed 2 sheets. I added some blanks to handwrite new favorite recipes.

Close Up

Another Close Up

Close Up

Last Close Up

I found this in the Dollar Spot at Target. It’s perfect storage for my extra magnets.

My magnets not in use live in this container.

Our Menu for June.

Do you think you’ll make a magnetic menu board? I’m so glad I tried and succeeded!

We started at 10:30 am and ran a few errands. Plenty of time to be back for lunch. An impulsive *quick* stop at Hobby Lobby derailed our entire morning and we had to *run* home for lunch before our grocery shopping. Two hours later and we’re still here procrastinating.

Anyway, this recipe just came to be today. I wanted SG to have something different than her vegan grilled cheese and fruit for lunch today.

It’s grocery day, and my fridge is BARE. I found my last pack of frozen cooked black beans in the freezer and decided to make my pizza beans mixture. We always use that for pizza nachos. But I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to carefully put the pizza beans, cheese & olives on each tortilla chip. (Crazy, right? Or maybe I just made complete sense to you and made you smile?)

So I decided to throw it all in a soft shell tortilla and call it a quesadilla.

1-2 cups of black beans (rinsed if from a can or jar, defrosted if cooked and frozen)

Soft Flour Tortillas

Daiya Mozzarella Cheese Shreds

Nutritional Yeast

Sliced Green Olives

Directions:

In a medium pot add beans and 5-8 big spoonfuls of pizza sauce. If you use 1 cup of beans, use 5 spoonfuls. If you use a can or jar of beans, you need more pizza sauce. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

I pour the hot beans into a measuring cup and use my immersion blender to puree the beans. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a blender or food processor. Be careful please. The beans are hot!

Heat a skillet on medium. Spread out a few tortillas and top half of the tortilla with the bean mixture, vegan cheese, nutritional yeast, and olives. Fold the tortilla in half.

Put the quesadilla on the hot skillet and heat until browned. Flip and brown the other side.

Slice and serve with extra homemade pizza sauce, if desired.

I didn’t have any green onions but I think they would also be great in these quesadillas.

This recipe yields 2 pizzas. (If you make 4 crusts you need to double the toppings and sauce. I always freeze the extra 2 crusts for pizza night the following week.)

SG helped me make the entire pizza. This is great for little hands. She made the pizza sauce, added the vegan cheese, placed the tomatoes & tore the fresh basil and placed it on the pizza. She has never been so excited for dinner to be ready.